Details
Victoria Hall Methodist Church
Norfolk Street
Sheffield
South Yorkshire
S1 2JB
England
Programme
Ethel Smyth – The Wreckers Overture
Cécile Chaminade – Callirhoë, Op.37
Florence Price – Adoration
Chris Noble – City in the Sea
~ Interval ~
Pyotr Tchaikovsky – Symphony no.4, Op.36
Performers
Felicity Hayward – soprano
Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
Opening with the overture from Ethel Smyth’s most ambitious and monumental opera, The Wreckers (1906), the Sheffield Philharmonic will take the audience on a wild journey. The overture is packed full of musical imagery and exciting twists and turns. The Wreckers was inspired by a walking holiday of Cornwall and the Scilly Isles in 1886, during which Smyth encountered folk stories of villagers luring ships onto the rocks to plunder their cargo. The story features a subplot involving two young lovers who light coastal beacons to warn these ships away.
Following in stark contrast is the charming and melodic music of Cécile Chaminade’s ballet symphonique, Callirhoë (1888), followed by the somber beauty and simple brilliance of Florence Price’s Adoration (1951) arranged for orchestra by Musical Director, George Morton.
Before the interval, the SPO are excited to premiere a new piece for symphony orchestra and Soprano soloist by local composer and jazz arranger, Chris Noble. Chris’s latest work City in the Sea, features Soprano, Felicity Hayward and is based on the poem The City in the Sea by Edgar Allan Poe.
The evening will end with Tchaikovsky’s fateful 4th Symphony (1878). Dominated by its opening ‘fate motif’ this is a work that not only moves the audience from darkness to light, but completely overcomes the power of fate itself, ending in a blaze of riveting force and joyful celebration.